Robert Bly wins Frost Medal for poetry

Robert Bly, one of the deans of American poetry, has won the Poetry Society of America's prestigious Frost Medal for distinguished lifetime achievement in poetry.

Bly, 86, was born in Madison, Minn., and lives in Minneapolis. A graduate of Harvard University, with a master's degree from the University of Iowa, he is a former Minnesota poet laureate.

It was during a trip to Norway that Bly discovered several Latin American and European poets previously underexposed or unknown to North American audiences, including Pablo Neruda, Georg Trakl and Tomas Transtromer, as well as 14th-century Persian poet Hafez.

Bly and William Duffy edited an influential magazine, The Fifties (later The Sixties and The Seventies), that aimed to shake the cobwebs out of American poetry, which they felt was old-fashioned.

Bly has published more than 30 books of poetry, including "Talking Into the Ear of a Donkey" (2011). His 1967 collection, "The Light Around the Body," won the National Book Award.

Although Bly was considered a nature poet when he began his career, his poetry turned political when he co-founded American Writers Against the Vietnam War in the 1960s. He later gained national fame for "Iron John: A Book About Men," and for his leadership in the mythopoetic men's movement. His explorations of the mythic and psychological aspects of gender led to his founding the Great Mother and New Father conference, celebrating its 39th anniversary this year.

In April, Minneapolis-based Graywolf Press will publish "Airmail," a collection of letters between Bly and his Nobel Prize-winning friend, Swedish poet Transtromer.